With budget mice, compromise is always necessary somewhere. Quite simply, it is financially infeasible for manufacturers to deliver an upper-tier sensor, good build quality, and high quality components at a price point of $29.99 or less. Consequently, settling for "good enough" means that a balance needs to be struck. As a result, ASUS had to make some concessions with the TUF M3. The main issue is the sensor, or rather how it's implemented. In theory, the PixArt PMW3325 is a serviceable sensor, certainly not high-end, but quite consistent and reliable. The 3325 in the ASUS TUF M3 struggles in two departments, however. First, there's a base motion delay of 2.5–3 ms, which is substantial. Second, at just 3.5 m/s, maximum tracking speed (i.e., the physical speed at which the sensor starts malfunctioning) is pretty low for today's standards. Polling rate stability used to be horrific, but this has been addressed in a firmware update. Additionally, click latency is acceptable now, sitting at 10.7 ms (relatively).

It's beyond me why ASUS didn't simply opt for the PixArt PAW3327 sensor instead of pushing the 3325 to a maximum CPI of 7000, which is way past its native maximum of 5000 CPI. The 3327 is capable of a maximum of 6200 CPI natively and barely costs more in production. It's a shame really since the ASUS TUF M3 is a solid piece of hardware otherwise. In terms of build quality, the M3 rivals several mice that cost more than twice as much as the M3: The construction is solid all around, without any creaking or cheap plastics, and the switches for the buttons are of above average quality as well. Even the cable, which is often neglected by manufacturers when it comes to budget mice, is surprisingly flexible, and I have no complaints about the mouse feet. The only flaw I could find in terms of build quality is a significant amount of sensor lens rattle on the first sample I've tested. The second one had no such issue. Software support is present in the form of Armoury II, which works without issue, and the RGB lighting, although basic, works fine, too. Lastly, although reminiscent of the Zowie EC2 shape, the shape of the ASUS TUF M3 is its own thing, combining an ergonomic right-handed design with a wider rounded hump you'd typically expect to see on an ambidextrous mouse.

Still, the overall lackluster sensor performance prevents the ASUS TUF M3 from getting our Recommended award, which would've been well-earned otherwise.